Barbora Krejcikova finally living up to her own billing after difficult year

Barbora Krejcikova complained last year that she was never in the conversation surrounding the top of women’s tennis.

Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina were the reigning grand slam champions, yet Krejcikova had recent wins over all three.

“It’s about Iga, Aryna, and Elena, and I’m not really there,” the 2021 French Open winner moaned in Miami in March 2023.

“I don't want to be forgotten somewhere in the shade of these three big players."

Barbora Krejcikova is playing with extra motivation as she prepares to take on Aryna Sabalenka for a third time this season. #MiamiOpen

Read: https://t.co/dyCFekTR9e

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) March 27, 2023

Unfortunately, in the intervening 16 months that gripe has looked more and more risible.

Injury and illness have taken their toll as Krejcikova tumbled down the rankings and after a two-month lay-off earlier this year she lost all four of her matches, including a first-round exit at Roland Garros, before arriving on the grass.

But now, as world number 32, Krejcikova beat Rybakina in three tense sets to reach a first Wimbledon final.

“I felt I had to improve everything,” she said. “I think I definitely got better on faster surfaces. I felt like I had to develop my game because everybody else is developing their game, too.

“I mean, it’s great that it looks like I made some progress, that I’m in another final.”

Krejcikova has been inspired by the memory of her mentor Jana Novotna, the Czech who famously cried on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent after losing the 1993 final against Steffi Graf before finally lifting the trophy five years later.

Novotna took a teenage Krejcikova under her wing but died of cancer in 2017 aged only 49.

“We talked about her matches here.